


this is different

by WonderTwinC



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:03:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4830104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderTwinC/pseuds/WonderTwinC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And then she smiled and oh - it was like the sun. [a series of ficlets]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. first kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minachandler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minachandler/gifts).



They’re just kids and they’re all friends - Tommy and Laurel and Oliver. Tommy’s not even sure how they all became friends, honestly. He met Oliver after his mother died and sometime after that they met Laurel. She’s not like them - not rich or rowdy or always getting into trouble.

Her father is a beat cop and her mother is a teacher and she’s kind and smart and offers to help them with their homework. Sometimes they lose touch with her here and there, mostly because her Dad doesn’t really approve of them (especially when they get older), but Laurel is always there- always somewhere.

He’s always liked Laurel.

Even when he didn’t like other girls, he’s always liked Laurel.

He spends Christmas at her house one year.

Oliver is gone off somewhere with his parents and Tommy doesn’t know where to go when his Dad rages at him in the middle of the night… so he shows up in the middle of the night at Laurel’s door with a thin jacket and ripped jeans and knocks until her mother answers the door.

Even though Officer Lance doesn’t like him, Mrs. Lance is another story.

Tommy thinks she’s part saint to smile as much as she does. It makes him miss his mother so much that it hurts, but then he has a mug of hot chocolate being shoved into his hands and he builds a blanket fort downstairs with Laurel (and her baby sister Sara).

It’s after they’re all sprawled out in the fort, watching the christmas lights stream in through the sheet that forms the top, that Tommy tells Laurel about his Mom and how he hasn’t spent a Christmas at home since she died.

How her mother reminds him of what little memories he has of his own.

Sara is curled up and asleep between them and Laurel is careful as she leans over her baby sister, pressing a quick, warm kiss to Tommy’s right cheek. She takes his hand and squeezes and smiles and it’s - like watching a sunrise.

“Merry Christmas, Merlyn,” she whispers, her voice a teasing lilt.

He blushes, but smiles back. “Merry Christmas, Laurel.”


	2. the morning after

Laurel woke slowly.

Her body ached in the most pleasurable way, well used muscles protesting as she stretched and rolled, blinking her eyes against the dim sunlight that streamed through the curtains. Memories of the night before returned slowly, images of tangled sheets and Tommy’s face and her body stretched out beneath his in bliss.

Smiling to herself, Laurel ran her hand along the opposite side of the bed, pausing when her palm encountered cold sheets.

“Tommy?” her voice rasped uncomfortably against her throat, making her grimace. She held the sheets to her body as she sat up, glancing around her room in confusion. Tommy’s clothes were gone and hers were picked up, toss carefully over the back of a chair.

She frowned. Of course he’d leave. Laurel wasn’t sure why she’d expected anything else, but the reality of it made her feel pretty shitty. Sighing, she wrapped the sheet around her bare body and slid out of bed, curling her toes against the rug as she took another look around her room.

Everything looked as it always did, but a piece of paper fluttering on the floor caught her attention. She padded across the cool hardwood and crouched, picking the paper up and turning it over.

There, scrawled in Tommy’s familiar, almost illegible handwriting was a note.

_Sorry, had to run. Breakfast with my father. I’ll see you later._

And below that, written as almost an afterthought -  _You looked beautiful this morning._

Laurel felt her face heat up. Reading the note again, her stomach fluttered in an unfamiliar way.

She smiled. 


End file.
